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Single player

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1 DVD 1 GameCube disc

The Mega Man Anniversary Collection is a collection of the first eight classic Mega Man series games as well as the two arcade games. The game was released for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube in 2004 and was later released for the Xbox in 2005. A Game Boy Advance version was planned to be released, but was put into indefinite hiatus.

The games are exactly like the originals, except that the first six Mega Man games were based on their PlayStation Rockman Complete Works versions (not Mega Man: The Wily Wars). A lot of features were removed from their original Japanese counterparts, but the basic NES and Navi modes are still there. It also contains the PlayStation version of Mega Man 8 rather than the remastered Sega Saturn edition (the main difference being the absences of Cut Man and Wood Man as extra bosses).

Notable differences

All games (excluding the two arcade titles) have save features, although passwords for Mega Man 2-7 are still fully operational.

The remixed music option for Megaman 1-6 is absent in the Gamecube version.

The difficulty select was removed from the title screen of Mega Man 2, due to the fact that it's already available in Anniversary Collection's options menu. The two options originally available were "Normal" and "Difficult" which correspond to Anniversary Collection's options "Easy" and "Normal", respectively. However, there are notable differences between Mega Man 2's "Normal" and Anniversary Collection's "Easy".

The Special Weapons of Mega Man 1-6 can now be changed with the L and R shoulder buttons, as well as the C-Stick.

The title screen of Mega Man 3 was altered slightly, so that Mega Man is placed to the far right (just as it is in the Japanese version).

Several platforms at the end of Wily Stage 1 in Mega Man 3 was altered, to be in line to the Japanese version.

Unlike the original Mega Man 3, Dr. Wily's name is no longer spelled as "Dr. Wiley", and the dialogue is slightly changed when Dr. Light is informing Mega Man that Dr. Wily stole Gamma.

In Mega Man 5, the Roman Numeral "V" (from "MEGAMANV") was changed back into a 5, just as it was in the Japanese version.

The song that played during the ending of the original Mega Man 5, while Dr. Wily was escaping, has been replaced by the credits music for unknown reasons.

The typo in Mr. X's speech in the original Mega Man 6, "My scheme for world domination has faild!", has been fixed.

In Mega Man 7, when Bass and Treble are encountered at Shade Man's stage, he now says "Darn", rather than "Damn", due to the fact that the E10+ rating didn't exist at the time and "Damn" was obviously a mild curse word.

Mega Man 7s ending was altered, due to the fact that the developers had problems emulating the Mode-7 effects. As such, after Mega Man escaped Dr. Wily's fortress, the ending consisted of just the credits without the accompanying animated sequence.

This was later fixed when the game was adapted to Mega Man Legacy Collection 2.

Some passwords from the original Mega Man 7, such as all eight Robot Masters being available from the start, no longer work.

During the cutscene in the Robot Museum stage where Wily is exiting with the Guts Man robot, his spaceship does not make any sound effects as it does in the SNES version.

The music is stilted, especially in the GameCube version where some tracks are louder than others and some instruments sound different (a unique music change is in Mega Man 7, where the music is pitched up slightly from the original tracks). The PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions are closer to the originals.

After the player defeats a fortress boss, Mega Man blends in with the explosion, appearing only as a silhouette. However, in the originals, he does not.

In Mega Man 8, a few of the Robot Masters' voice overs are different pitches and speeds (Sword Man and Aqua Man). This difference in pitches and speeds can also vary between different versions of the game. For example, the different pitch and speed of Aqua Man is more frequent in the GameCube version than the PlayStation 2 version.

Proto Man's whistle tune has a lower pitch in Anniversary Collection than it does in the original.

The "Save" and "Options" portion of the shop menu was removed from Mega Man 8, leaving two empty spaces where they once were.

Likewise, the button configuration screens that the Complete Works versions originally had ended up getting removed for unknown reasons.

Canceled Game Boy Advance version

Mega Man Anniversary Collection, originally known as Mega Man Mania, is a version designed for the Game Boy Advance handheld that was put into indefinite hiatus by Capcom. It would have featured all five classic Mega Man games for the Game Boy with color and extras.